In honor of the rapidly approaching Valentine’s Day (and, really, when is love inappropriate?), my novelette Heartfire from Issue No. 3 of The Uncollected Anthology, Heartspells, is free to read.

***

— Vengeance is mine. —

Someone kills a woman in the alley behind Snake Bite Tattoo—a clear declaration of war against its dangerous proprietor, Malek, the serpent from the Garden of Eden made an immortal man. If he can work a spell in time to bring the woman back to temporary life, she can tell him who murdered her and why. He’ll track them down and make they pay. End of story.

But he doesn’t count on remembering that he once knew her, or the feelings that rise in him along with the memories. Or that the reason for her death and the declaration of war are not what they seem.

“For more than a decade now, I have adored the work of Leslie Claire Walker.”
- Kristine Kathryn Rusch

***

Heartfire is set in the Hunt Universe. It fits into the universe chronology like this:

My story in Heartspells is Heartfire, a story set in the Hunt Universe.

— Vengeance is mine. —

Someone kills a woman in the alley behind Snake Bite Tattoo—a clear declaration of war against its dangerous proprietor, Malek, the serpent from the Garden of Eden made an immortal man. If he can work a spell in time to bring the woman back to temporary life, she can tell him who murdered her and why. He’ll track them down and make they pay. End of story.

But he doesn’t count on remembering that he once knew her, or the feelings that rise in him along with the memories. Or that the reason for her death and the declaration of war are not what they seem.

“For more than a decade now, I have adored the work of Leslie Claire Walker.”- Kristine Kathryn Rusch

***

Heartfire fits into the Hunt chronology like this:

Hunt

Snakebite

Demon

Breathless

Blood to Blood

Phoenix

Heartfire

Girl in Black

***

An especially cool thing about Heartfire is that it marks the beginning of a new urban fantasy series built around Malek. I’m working away on the first novel and having a blast.

Merry Holiday and Happy New Year to all of you. May your 2015 be filled to the brim with love, laughter, success, prosperity, and all good things.

For the next two weeks, my story “Phoenix” from The Uncollected Anthology Issue 2, Winter Witches, is free to read. Check it out below!

Phoenix

by

Leslie Claire Walker

A mystery girl appears in the midst of a winter thunderstorm, seeking a witch to break a terrible curse. The problem: banishment from the Faery Realm. The witch: seventeen-year-old Stacy, young to the Craft but rich in power and reputation thanks to her hand in thwarting the last apocalypse. The catch: helping the girl leads to certain death.

A mystery girl appears in the midst of a winter thunderstorm, seeking a witch to break a terrible curse. The problem: banishment from the Faery Realm. The witch: seventeen-year-old Stacy, young to the Craft but rich in power and reputation thanks to her hand in thwarting the last apocalypse. The catch: helping the girl leads to certain death.

***

Phoenix is a story in the Hunt Universe. It fits into the Hunt chronology like this:

Rudolph Diamond Davies III: Senior class clown. Hawaiian-shirt-wearing party dude. Apprentice Faery Seer trained to enforce the peace among humans, faeries, angels, and demons. No problem. Until a friend’s spell to summon a capital D Demon devastates Rude’s city in the blink of an eye. If Rude can’t find a way to stop it, the Demon will destroy not just his town, but the whole world.

The next book in the Hunt Universe saga is available to read as an ebook. A tradepaper version will be out later this year. Links are here:

Announcing The Uncollected Anthology…of Urban Fantasy. This project was hatched on the Oregon Coast during the annual Oregon Writers Network Anthology Workshop. Several of us, at the urging of the awesome Dayle A. Dermatis, took a look around the room and realized that we were huge fans of each other’s writing and wanted to put something together to facilitate even more great stories. And so, we present The Uncollected Anthology.

uncollected: not collected or gathered together.

anthology: a collection of selected literary pieces.

oxymoron: a combination of words that have opposite or very different meanings. The Uncollected Anthology series is indeed an oxymoron. Sprung from the minds of six fabulous authors who love fantasy, short stories, and each other’s writing, the series’ main goal is to bring you quality urban fantasy fiction.

Every three months, the authors pick a theme and write a short story for that theme. But instead of bundling the stories together, they each sell their own stories. No muss, no fuss—you can buy one story, or you can buy them all. (I hope you will want to buy them all, because they are incredible stories!)

Malek—the serpent from the Garden of Eden—counts himself among the local gods. The last time he rode with the others under the moonlight, his one and only apprentice died a terrible death. So when the invitation for the next midnight ride arrives on his doorstep, he refuses.

Until a human girl he cares about becomes the gods’ target.

He may be her only chance to survive, but his help comes at a steep price.

Blood to Blood is a novelette (for all intents and purposes, a longer short story) set in the Hunt Universe. In chronological order, the Hunt Universe is:

Hunt

Snakebite

Demon

Breathless

Blood to Blood

Girl in Black

Just so you know where the story fits in the grand scheme of things.

The Awesomeness of Certain Parties, and Links

The Uncollected Anthology authors have partnered with Kobo books, for which many thanks are due to the awesome Mark Lefebvre, Kobo Director of Self-Publishing and Author Relations. Check out TheUncollected Anthology’s group page on Kobo!

The awesome Stephanie Writt designed our UA logo and the template for our covers!

Thanks to the awesome Annie Reed and Michele Lang, who worked very hard on our group agreement. Although Michele doesn’t have a story in our Magical Motorcycles issue, I have high hopes for the next one!

The awesome Phaedra Weldon kicked ass and took initials (because she’s too awesome to take names) in designing our website. Check it out for more info on The Uncollected Anthology. We have a newsletter (quarterly, to tell you when a new issue is available).

I could not be more excited about this project, which is the brainchild of the awesome Dayle A. Dermatis! So many amazing authors. So many amazing stories. I’m so happy to count myself a member of this group.

Upcoming issues of The Uncollected Anthology:

Winter Witches

Heartspells

Portals and Passageways

I hope you enjoy the stories at least as much as I did. Happy reading!

It could be a million things, but in this case it’s a whole bunch of writers inviting each other to talk about our own Next Big Projects. My friend Melissa Yuan-Innes, who I’ve know since we bonded at Writers of the Future a while back, tagged me as part of this week’s installments. Thanks, Melissa!

Here’s my offering – work in progress Demon City.

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1) What is the working title of your next book?

Demon City, which is a sequel to my young adult fantasy novel Hunt. It’s written under my pen name for young adult fiction, Claire Crow.

2) Where did the idea come from for the book?

From a writing assignment at a workshop on the Oregon Coast. During a week-long mystery writing intensive, we wrote short fiction and proposals (the first three chapters and a synopsis of a novel). Now, Demon City isn’t a mystery per se. But it’s got mystery elements. To be specific, it’s a young adult fantasy noir.

3) What genre does your book fall under?

Oops. Already answered that. See #2.

4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

I haven’t thought about this sort of thing at all. I mean at. all. But now that I’m asked to … Nicholas Hoult, who rocked in X-Men: First Class, would be fabulous as Rudolph “Rude” Diamond Davies III, way too cool for school class clown and apprentice Faery Seer. Josh Hutcherson for Kevin. I loved him in The Hunger Games and The Kids are All Right, and he would be perfect for Kevin’s every-guy-with-Faery-connections thing. Kristin Stewart for Simone. I’m betting she could do a great human-turning-Faery-fiery magical songstress.

5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

When a spell-gone-wrong turns Rude Davies’ city into a creature feature Gotham, he must find a way to reverse the magic before he loses everyone he cares about—and his own humanity.

6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Indie, baby.

7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

The first draft is still in progress. I anticipate it will be completed in the early spring, with a release date for the final book in summer 2013.

8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I have no idea. My fabulous copyeditor who worked on the first installment in the series, Hunt, compared it with the super talented Melissa Marr’s Wicked Lovely books. Who on earth wouldn’t want to hear something that wonderful about one of her books?

9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I adore the universe I created in Hunt. I adore the characters. Folks have told me that they loved Kevin’s story in Hunt, and asked me when I would be writing Rude’s tale. So a story for Rude has been bubbling in the back of my mind for a bit. And during the aforementioned mystery writing intensive, one of the short stories I wrote hinted at a perfect plot to put Rude in the middle of. (That short story is called Snakebite, and was originally published in Chiaroscuro as By Appointment.)

One of the most original writers I’ve ever read. Simply brilliant. I’ve never read a Robert Jeschonek story I haven’t loved, and I’ve never read one of his stories that didn’t surprise me.

Steve Mohan, Jr. (also writes as Henry Martin)
Super smart, action-packed stories with characters who are never just characters on a page, but real people faced with tough choices. Steve’s stories always keep me on the edge of my seat.

I wrote “The Vault” a couple of years ago as part of an Oregon Writers Network workshop challenge that had me outside my comfort zone immediately. And as we all know, outside the comfort zone is where the magic happens.